Up in smoke
by IguessIwritestuff
Summary: It started out as an innocent night, as most nights do. (Two-shot)
1. Chapter 1

It started out as an innocent night, as most nights do. An eighth grade graduation party was the last place Lynn would have expected to be bombarded with something so...adult-like. She wasn't even technically a high school freshman yet. There was an entire summer separating her from the horrors of a whole new world. She didn't really like socializing with the girls in her class all that much, they were petty and all cared more about what she'd worn to the party than that she'd actually come, and the boys were right in the middle of puberty and just downright awkward. Which would be how she found herself outside. One minute she was standing outside in the mellow, delicate wind, maybe feeling a little underdressed in her cutoff shorts and tank top, and the next minute she smelled...smoke. Had someone lit a fire? She looked around at the house behind her in panic, not seeing anything set ablaze, and there was no smoke coming from the chimney. Was it legal to start a bonfire on a residential lot? Lynn was pretty sure it wasn't. Maybe she was smelling something from one of the neighbors' houses.

And then, smoke again. This time closer to her face. She coughed a couple of times, covering her mouth after hearing a sound from over by the house's garage. Peeking around the corner of the house, she saw a figure, dimly illuminated by the porch light...holding a cigarette.

Naturally, Lynn knew what a cigarette was and how it worked, as most fourteen-year-olds did. She'd read and heard about them enough times that she knew it was incredibly unhealthy. This figure wasn't much taller than she was, so either it was a short adult or one of her classmates. Lynn, being the stubborn person she was, had a mind to do something about it, so she listened to the tapping of her sneakers against the pavement as she approached the person. As she got closer, she realized there was more than one figure, and the number actually totaled to three. The first figure's face came into focus, and Lynn raised an eyebrow in confusion. He wasn't in her class...was he? None of them were.

They looked...older.

The one girl looked about Luna's age- they all did, actually- and had a noise piercing, which Lynn tried not to cringe at. She hated needles in general- she didn't even have her ears pierced. The boy next to her took a long drag of his cigarette and blew the smoke into the air, making little rings. Maybe that was kinda cool, but still, it was unhealthy. Lynn crossed her arms defensively, and the first boy she'd seen looked over at her.

"Oh god, one of my brother's classmates found her way over here." he muttered, looking towards his snickering friends. "Look, kid, get lost. Go...pin the tail on the donkey or something."

Lynn's eyes narrowed. "I'm not a baby. I'm fourteen." she replied, hoping to sound intimidating, but instead the older kids just laughed. Were they mocking her? She'd come over here to keep them from poisoning themselves and this is how they thank her?

"I know you. You're Luna Loud's kid sister." the other boy commented, shaking his head in disdain. "One of 'em, at least. From what I hear your parents are practically rabbits." Were they making fun of her family? Lynn was about ready to let all hell break loose.

"Get lost." the older girl commented, rolling her eyes and holding a cigarette to her mouth.

"You know that's bad for you." Lynn retorted, adjusting her arms but keeping them crossed. "You could really damage your lungs."

The girl laughed again. "You're cute." she said, purposefully blowing smoke in Lynn's general direction. "But you're not my mom." Lynn started coughing again, and when she stopped all of the older kids were laughing. She narrowed her eyes to try to look intimidating, but instead found a cigarette held in front of her face by one of the boys.

"You want one?" he asked, and her chocolate eyes went wide. She blinked a couple of times, looking from his face to his hand and back to his face again.

"No WAY." Lynn shook her head aggressively. Of course not! Wasn't she just telling them how dangerous it was? She'd have to be a complete hypocrite to-

"Baby." the boy mumbled. Yet he didn't retract his hand. If there was anything that would send Lynn over the edge, it was telling her that she couldn't do something, or that she was wimpy. Her dark eyes narrowed, and she placed her little hands on her hips.

"I'm not a baby. I'm just...trying to quit." she lied, hoping they'd believe her and that she could leave without being pressured into anything she didn't want to have to do. She was practically in the mind-frame where she was going to snatch the object out of the boy's hand just to prove that she wasn't...a kid. Lynn desperately tried to keep her hands secured on her hips, because she didn't want to take the cigarette, and if theoretically she did take it and any of her older sisters found out...she was dead. Worse than dead, actually. She'd have to sit through lecture after lecture after lecture about things she already knew.

Suddenly one of the boys grabbed her hand and shoved the small cylinder into it, closing her fingers around it and smirking before letting go. "If you're really trying to quit, it's nice to have a little consolation once in a while." he said, pulling a lighter from his pocket.


	2. Chapter 2

Lynn was not easily scared but she could feel her hands shaking. She felt so genuinely uncomfortable that she actually considered fake-crying to get out of it; then shook her head because she was not the most stellar actress. The older boy rotated the little wheel and clicked the switch on the lighter, and a small flame was born. Lynn hated to admit it, but she was absolutely terrified in that moment. She'd never been...picked on or bullied before. Of course she was familiar with peer pressure but this was different. These kids weren't her peers. They were older, tougher; intimidating. Lynn was used to being so tough that nobody would even dare approach the subject because they'd get one of her infamous gut punches. Now...she was questioning her own identity. Why could she stand up for her friends yet not herself?

"Well?" the older girl challenged, raising an eyebrow. "Since you're obviously such a professional, go ahead." Lynn's little heart was racing at a mile a minute, and she nervously blinked in terror as the boy took the cigarette from her hand, lighting the end and holding it back out towards her. She could smell the burning nicotine, along with the potential addiction. If she did take it, she'd be disappointed in herself. If she didn't, these kids would make her life miserable at school in the fall. Maybe if she just did it once, just very quickly just so the next two years of her life wouldn't be a living hell...nobody would ever have to know. Lynn knew that her friend Margo, who was most likely busy socializing with the other girls, kept breath mints in her jacket. It was easy enough to cover up the smell, and she could probably just suppress the guilt until she didn't even remember it.

With trembling fingers, she reached out slowly and took the small object. Lynn looked at how the older kids had been holding the cigarettes, between their index and middle finger, and attempted to replicate it. She looked down at her little hands in disdain, almost shaking her head. She couldn't really be...smoking, to prove she wasn't a baby, could she?

"We don't have all night." the boy who'd handed her the cigarette rolled his eyes, taking a long drag from his own cigarette.

"Five bucks says she won't do it." the girl whispered, and Lynn felt like they'd just directly punched her ego. It wasn't like she wanted to do this, but now it was as if she had to, not for them but for herself to prove she wasn't weak or fragile.

Lynn took a deep breath, raising her hand up towards her mouth, and feeling the tip of the small cylinder bump up against her bottom lip. It smelled even more disgusting up close. She opened her mouth, inhaling...and then dropped the object to the ground, bending over and coughing out smoke. The older kids were laughing, and for the first one since she was about six she felt real tears welling in her eyes.

"Just...leave me alone." she mumbled quietly, letting out a few more pained coughs before stamping the cigarette into the ground and running away over towards the house. The older kids were clearly still talking about her, but she didn't care. Lynn sat down on the ground next to the outside wall of the house, picking up a handful of dirt and letting it slide through the cracks between her fingers. She pulled her knees in towards her chest, resting her head on the tips. She could still taste the tobacco on her tongue, and thankfully she found it absolutely repulsive. It was consoling to know she wasn't going to make a stupid life decision and get addicted to cigarettes at fourteen. Lynn didn't even care if someone told one of her sisters anymore, or, God forbid, her parents. She realized now, after she'd actually raised a cigarette to her lips, that there were so many things she could have said, so many opportunities to run, and she didn't have to do anything to prove a point. The taste of tobacco in her mouth still couldn't top the taste of shame in the back of her throat.

She couldn't talk to Lucy about this. Even though the little girl would try to be compassionate and wouldn't dare tell anyone else, she was still only nine and probably didn't understand peer pressure quite yet. Lynn loved her baby sister, but she was...still a baby. She couldn't talk to Lori, because Lori would probably flip out, plus she was so busy packing for college that she wouldn't have time to even think of advice. Leni...just wasn't good at advice in general. She was compassionate and all, but didn't really understand what was going on most of the time. Luan would make her tell their parents, and Luna would tell her she'd made a stupid choice. You'd think that with ten siblings someone wouldn't feel entirely alone.

Lynn listened to the ambient noise of cars driving around her, the quiet bird calls echoing through the night. She looked down at her cellphone screen for a second, which really only made her feel worse. It was barely eight-o-clock. She hadn't even been here for two hours.

Her bottom lip began to tremble, and she buried her face in the little cocoon she'd created with her knees once more. She squeezed her eyes closed and felt a tear gently trickle down her cheek, hesitating at the bottom of her jaw before falling into her lap. Crying wouldn't help, but at least she could act like exactly what the older kids had called her: a baby.

Lynn wasn't sure how long she'd sat there, but after a while she felt another presence hovering over her. Her heart began palpitating, because she thought it was one of the older kids, come to claim their victory. "Congratulations," she mumbled, "you win."

"Win what?" Lynn heard, looking up and seeing a confused Luna. "Are you crying, dude?"

Lynn tried to hide her face as she used the hem of her shirt to dry her cheeks. "No." she said, sniffling. "Why are you here? Why would you want to come to an eighth grade...er, freshman...party?"

Her sister sat down next to her, sighing and pointing towards the family van. "Mom sent me to pick you up, brah. It's game night and we can't play Monopoly without our favorite tyrant." Lynn let out a small smile, and Luna's facial expression contorted to one of relief. "Is there a fire?" Luna made a face, clearly smelling something.

Lynn's eyes went wide, and her heart began racing. She scanned her brain for the easiest way to end this conversation, which her mind told her would be lying. "Um...uh...yeah. Yeah, a fire." Lynn looked at her sneakers, hoping her sister had believed her. However, that was not the case. Luna shot Lynn an unconvinced look, sniffing the air again, and scooting closer to her sister. Lynn tried moving farther away.

"You smell like smoke." Luna commented, and Lynn painfully watched as the remark and its connotation resonated in her sister's mind. "Oh no."

Lynn couldn't bring herself to meet her sister's disappointed gaze. She knew she'd made a stupid choice earlier, and she never planned on doing it again, but Luna didn't know the story. Luna was probably thinking her little sister was some kind of delinquent. The younger girl could only assume Luna thought Lynn had decided to try smoking herself. Which, sort of, she...had, but she hadn't really made the decision herself. Had she? It was all a blur of coughing and the terrible aftertaste of tobacco after the boy had stuck the cigarette in her hand. "I know what you're thinking." Lynn muttered quietly, burying her face in her hands.

"Do you know how bad smoking is for you?" Luna said, and suddenly Lynn felt her sister's arm wrap around her back and pulling her in closer. She leaned her head over onto Luna's shoulder, and her sister sighed. "I know you're a teenager now, and sometimes you're going to want to do stupid things. But please, for the love of-" Luna stopped, noticing her sister's shoulders were shaking.

"It was the last time. I promise." Lynn mumbled, wiping a hand under her eyes. "I know I'm stupid for even trying it for a second. And it tasted really gross. It actually still tastes really gross."

Luna let out a long sigh, which was oddly comforting. "You're not stupid." she replied. Lynn rolled her eyes, a flurry of thoughts of denial whirring around in her brain. She thought that it was stupid, and definitely thought of herself as stupid for giving into intimidation. Maybe Luna saw something she hadn't. Nonetheless, it was a compliment, and even if Lynn didn't believe it she wasn't going to turn it down. It gave her damaged ego a little bit of a boost.

"Are you going to tell Mom and Dad?" Lynn said quietly, and her sister shrugged.

"We don't have to. I think you've learned your lesson." Luna pushed on the ground, standing up and dusting her jeans off. "So what's worse? The tobacco aftertaste or the guilt?" Luna held out a hand, and Lynn pushed it away, helping herself to her feet. The sisters started walking over towards the car, and Lynn thought about the question for a minute.

"Aftertaste." she decided. "Definitely the aftertaste."


End file.
